Goin' on Vacation

A few months back, I wrote a post about the get-away that Aaron, Grace, and I were going to be taking as part of the celebration of my momentous 30th birthday (turns out, actually, that my 30th birthday kinda just felt like another day). We had planned on taking a road trip to Green Valley, Arizona to visit my grandparents, who (wisely) spend their winters there. The idea was to drive cross country in the spirit of adventure and with the goal of introducing Grace to parts of the country that she has never seen. I am a huge fan of road trips and thought this would be a great way to spend some good quality time with my family.

Reason soon set in, though, and once Aaron and I sat down and calculated the cost of gas plus at least four nights in hotels (two nights on the way there and two on the way home) plus meals and other necessities, we would have spent about the same amount of money if we flew there. And, there was the nagging doubt in the back of my mind that spending 60 hours in the car with a three-year-old might not be a barrel of laughs. Initially, the thing that appealed most to me about a road trip to Arizona, aside from seeing my beloved grandparents who I miss terribly, was the adventure it would bring, and I was pretty certain that it would be a really cool adventure...or, it could turn out to be a royal pain in the ass. Finding out that my grandparents are coming home for our wedding reception in a month pretty much sealed the deal for me...we would postpone our Arizona trip until next year, when Gracie is a little older.

So, the question became, "What the heck are we going to do?" Aaron and I had initially floated the idea of going to Vegas, but we wouldn't be able to bring Grace along on a Vegas trip and frankly, I wanted her to be a part of things. (We'll get our child-free vacation in June when we go to Bonnaroo.) We brainstormed and came up with a short list of destinations that are relatively close to home, and we decided on taking a trip to Wisconsin Dells, where we will be staying at the Kalahari Resort and Waterpark. Since Grace is no longer terrified of the water--in fact, she loves being in the water so much that she eagerly looks forward to swim class each week--we decided that we're ready for the behemoth indoor waterpark experience. And, the fact that there are tons of activities to do at the Kalahari apart from the waterpark, including pottery classes for kids and massages for moms (ok, and for stepdads, too), was very attractive to us. Plus, we'll be in Wisconsin Dells, so even if we do get bored for some reason at the resort, there are tons of other things to do.

So, we leave tomorrow and we're totally stoked. A full report and pictures will be coming after we get home!!